Personal development requires change. Anything that is static and unchanging can’t grow, can’t develop, can’t learn, and can’t adapt. Change is a necessary ingredient for progress.

When many people think about making a change in their life, they immediately associate it with a revolutionary change: a large radical transformation that occurs in a short burst of time.

Examples of this type of change occur every January when thousands of people all across the country join a gym as part of a New Year’s resolution. They signup and immediately begin a strenuous exercise routine involving many minutes of cardio and strength training.

Other examples include dieters that make extreme changes in the amount of calories they consume or restrict the types of food they eat in an attempt to “shock” their bodies into losing weight.

There is nothing wrong with revolutionary change, and it can lead to some amazing results, when it works.

The problem is that revolutionary change is often difficult to implement, and sometimes even more difficult to sustain.

Think of all the millions of people that don’t join the gym each year, even though they desperately need to change their sedentary lifestyle and do more exercise, or all the people that stop going to the gym or abandon their diets after a few short weeks.

Most people have a natural resistance to revolutionary change and transformation. To a large extent, this is due to a part of our brain that likes predictable routines and resists any big changes in our daily life, even if they are good for us. This natural resistance to change is the source of our “comfort zone.”

People often associate personal development and goal setting with this type of revolutionary transformation. They see it as an “all or nothing” deal, where you need to make a radical transformation in one or more areas of your life in a short amount of time. They read, learn, and prepare to make some massive changes in their lives, but in the end, they never actually take meaningful action because of all the inner resistance they feel.

That’s why so many experience the “motivational speaker letdown” after attending a seminar. At first, people get really excited about making huge changes in their life, but soon lose all momentum when the resistance kicks in. Many don’t end up making any lasting changes at all.

This article introduces a gentler approach to personal development based on the principles of a Japanese philosophy called Kaizen, which Dr. Robert Maurer further developed in his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life.

History of Kaizen

Depending on who you ask, the literal translation of the word Kaizen is “change for the better” or “continuous improvement.” The philosophy of Kaizen combines these two interpretations and represents a way of making small incremental changes in a spirit of continuous improvement.

After World War II erupted and it became clear that the United States would be involved in the war, the US government realized that it would need to find a way to quickly ramp-up production of military supplies and equipment. To further aggravate the situation, many of the trained and skilled personnel in the manufacturing industry were being drafted to go to war.

The US government initiated a management training program to help manufacturing companies develop ways to increase production. One of the ideas in this program was the concept of “continuous improvement.”

Rather than asking managers to make big or radical changes in their manufacturing process or equipment, it urged them to look for many small improvements to increase quality and efficiency.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming, one of the strongest supporters of continuous improvement, and others in the program recognized that revolutionary changes in the manufacturing process were much too risky and difficult to implement across all the factories in the US in the short time they had available.

Instead, they involved the entire workforce and encouraged everyone, from top executives to blue-collar workers, to think about and suggest ways to improve quality and productivity in their work areas.

Managers took all suggestions seriously, irrespective of the source, and quickly implemented many of the changes since they were small, inexpensive, and easy to make.

While it may seem counter-intuitive that such small changes could affect the productivity of entire factories, the results speak for themselves. The small changes added up and led to significant increases in both quality and productivity. The resulting increase in production of military supplies and equipment was an important contributing factor for the Allied victory in World War II.

After the war, America lost interest in the continuous improvement principles as factories returned to “normal” production levels. With little foreign competition, there was no need to keep or further develop the productivity gains achieved during the war.

In Japan, General Douglass MacArthur recognized that the Japanese economy would require some assistance to recover from the devastation of the war. He enlisted the help of many of the people involved in the American management training programs to teach Japanese managers and executives how to rebuild their industries.

Japanese executives were particularly receptive to the ideas of continuous improvement because it allowed them to make progress even with the limited industrial resources they had at their disposal. They could not afford to make radical changes in their factories or purchase expensive new equipment, so “continuous improvement” seemed like a perfect fit.

They invited Dr. Deming to consult with various industries, expanded and evolved the teachings, and eventually incorporated the principles into their corporate cultures.

Once Japanese scholars and executives recognized the exceptional results and productivity gains they were experiencing while applying the principles of small incremental steps in a spirit of continuous improvement, the Kaizen philosophy was born.

Toyota Motor Corporation is perhaps the best known example of a company that embraced the Kaizen philosophy early on and applied it to its manufacturing process.

The Kaizen principles started to make their way back into the US in the 1980’s when American executives realized the competitive advantage that it provided to Japanese companies like Toyota that were quickly gaining ground and market share.

Today, these ideas have evolved into practices like “six-sigma” and “lean manufacturing” that many Fortune 500 companies like General Electric have come to embrace.

Kaizen and Personal Change

While Kaizen is mostly associated with business and manufacturing processes, the same philosophy of small incremental changes in a spirit of continuous improvement can also apply to our personal lives and goals.

Unlike some other “self-help” methods, the Kaizen approach is not based on the notion that we need to “fix” our lives to be successful.

Rather, it is based on the idea of enhancing our lives in a spirit of balance and continuous improvement with the aim of growing, expanding our horizons, and developing our full potential as human beings.

In future articles, I’ll explore some of the reasons why Kaizen work so well for making positive changes and discuss some specific techniques that you can use to put these principles into practice in your everyday life.

These principles also play a significant role in the process that is part of our goal setting challenge.

I encourage you to get and read Dr. Maurer’s book, One Small Step Can Change Your Life, which explains the Kaizen approach in detail and provides several examples of its application to personal change.

About the Author - Rodger Constandse is the founder of KSuccess.com and creator of the Goal Setting Challenge. He is also the author of the time management eBook Master Your Time, and principal developer of the Achieve Planner software.